In a recent sit-down with Yahoo! Sports‘ Andrew Siciliano, Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson got the opportunity to share his true feelings regarding a hot-button topic.
Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated articulated that Justin Jefferson was discussing young quarterbacks and how they can’t get too high or too low. Siciliano looked to get a headline out of Jefferson about J.J. McCarthy, telling the star receiver that it sounded like he was “kind of over ‘Nine’”.
Vikings’ Justin Jefferson Gets Honest About “Nine”
GettyVikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson had a lot to say about J.J. McCarthy’s self-proclaimed alter-ego, “Nine”.
Justin Jefferson didn’t give in to what many people might hypothesize that he thinks about McCarthy and his alter-ego.
Ragatz wrote it out for us:
“I’m not really over Nine. I like Nine. I think people took that and really ran with it, because I don’t really think that he’s saying that he’s to that point where he’s giving himself a name or he’s giving himself an alter ego.
Having that, it’s the same as me calling myself Jets or Jettas. It’s the same exact thing. He doesn’t really have another nickname besides J.J., so him calling himself Nine is not really something of him getting too big-headed or him feeling that he’s made it or anything.”
Justin Jefferson equated it to him calling himself “Jets”. This implies that McCarthy meant it as an innocent nickname for himself. This could be the case. However, the public consensus didn’t seem to see it that way given the timing of it.
McCarthy gave himself that nickname after his big-time win over the Lions in his return to action in Week 9 (no pun intended). It didn’t become a huge deal until at least a week later when McCarthy began to struggle for multiple weeks in a row.
“Jettas” Defends “Nine”
GettyVikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy gets back-up from all-pro WR Justin Jefferson.
Jefferson continued in his defense of the young signal caller, per Ragatz:
“I feel like that’s just his alter ego that everybody has when they step out on the field. Everybody has to have that confidence booster, everyone has to have that switch they have to turn on when they step out there on that field.
I feel like him saying Nine, that represents that. I don’t really feel like people are thinking of it the way he’s taking it.
That’s something that I guess he’s gonna learn from and really not bring into depth, but having that alter ego, having that confidence behind him is not something I blame him for.”
In that regard, Jefferson seems logical. Professional athletes have to be confident in themselves. If giving yourself a nickname helps you achieve that, then so be it.
McCarthy wasn’t giving himself that nickname to say that he’s officially arrived or to demand respect. He said it because he has confident in himself and is comfortable with who he is on the road to becoming.
The Vikings hope to get more out of who McCarthy thinks “Nine” is, and the last two weeks from him have helped that case.
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